"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host
of them"(Genesis
2:1).

Having dealt with how all of Creation
came into being, Moses now focuses on human beings and their immediate
environment. While
Genesis
1 answered the question How did it all originate?
Genesis
2 explains why we are what we are. Without the information provided by
Genesis
2, the test of allegiance to God and the subsequent Fall described in
Genesis
3 would, to a large extent, be unintelligible.

The intimate world of Adam and Eve surrounded by trees and animals in a garden
complements the previous majestic account of Creation.
Chapter
2 introduces the reader of the Bible to the social dimensions of humanity
and gives some insight on prehistory and the original geography of the world.

Genesis
2 also deals with such divine institutions as Sabbath, work, home, and
marriage. Given to the human race before the Fall, these institutions lie
at the basis of human existence, conduct, and happiness even today. Though
we are, indeed, a long way from Eden, it still presents a model, a template
of principles, for we who are on the periphery of Eden restored. What messages
are found in this divine account of a prefallen world for the rest of us,
we who have known only a fallen existence?

This week we'll take a look at, literally, paradise, one of the few we'll
ever see, at least for now.

Last week we saw a progression in the Creation account: from darkness to
light, from only water to earth and water, to an atmosphere, to vegetation,
and so forth, culminating in the creation of human beings, first the man
and then the woman. Only after all these things were created do we get the
words in
Genesis
2:1"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host
of them." God's work of Creation, at least as attested to here, was a finished
work. This notion is implied in
Genesis
2:2, 3, where both verses say that God "rested" from His work. Was God
tired, or did He rest because His work was completed?

Is there anything in
the texts that implies that Creation was an ongoing process that continued
after the sixth day? What are the implications of your answer?

Considering what the
Sabbath stands for, the Creation, how do these verses already imply the
universality of the Sabbath; that is, its meaning for all humanity?

Although the noun sabbath is not mentioned in
Genesis
2, the verb for "rested," from which the term sabbath is derived,
proves that the Sabbath is meant (see
Exod.
20:8-11). Just as six literal days came before it, the Sabbath is
a literal day, as well.

Notice, too, that the first thing God declared holy was time, the seventh
day. Not a hill, not a river, not a shrine, but a segment of time itself
was the first thing in God's new Creation specifically "set apart" (another
way of expressing "to be made holy"). Thus, we see the Sabbath as something
special, something universal, something not bounded by the limits of place
or geography but as something that can reach every human being no matter
where they live.

Next time you welcome in the Sabbath, dwell on the fact that you are
keeping a day;that goes all the way back to Eden, to the first week of human
existence. How does that make you feel, linking yourself in such a tangible
way to your origins?

MONDAY

October 16

Nephesh Hayyah

In
Genesis
2, the scene shifts from the Creation of the world to a local garden.
Rather than being a second and different Creation narrative,
Genesis
2 complements
Genesis
1. Human beings are the pinnacle of the pyramid in
Genesis
1. In
Genesis
2 they become the center of the circle. The spotlight falls on the human
race, and everything else is relegated to the background.

Back in Genesis, it wasn't until the fifth day that God created "living
creatures," from the Hebrew nephesh hayyah. Hayyah here means "life,"
and nephesh means "creature." Interestingly enough, that same phrase
appears in
2:7.

Read
Genesis
2:7. What phrase seems most likely in the text to have been translated
from nephesh hayyah?

Most people are surprised to learn that the phrase often translated "living
soul"
(Gen.
2:7) in the creation of humanity is the same one used to describe
fish and birds and other creeping things. Though unlike these other creatures,
humanity was made in the "image of God"
(Gen.
1:27); in a purely physical sense humanity is tied to other life
on earth. And, of course, we see this in the sense that, like other life
on earth, we need certain physical things in order to stay alive.

Though the Bible uses the word nephesh in numerous ways, denoting
a variety of ideas ("person," "self," "life," or "being"), it never means
in the Old Testament the popular notion of some separate conscious immortal
entity that can exist apart from the body. That's a pagan Greek idea that
has filtered into almost all monotheistic religions today.

Make a list of the common popular deceptions that arise from belief
in an immortal soul. Why should one who understands the truth about the soul
be so grateful that he or she does understand? What does that knowledge protect
you from?

The specific geographical details presented in
verses
10 through 14 indicate that, in the mind of the Bible writer, Eden was
a specific locality rather than merely being a symbol or a metaphor. Several
of the names mentioned in
verses
11 through 14 are later applied to post-Flood localities and rivers.
However, the Flood changed the surface features of our planet so radically
that identification of pre-Flood geography with places and rivers known to
us is impossible.

What
elements mentioned in
verses
8 through 17 indicate that the garden home was an ideal model? (Note
particularly the setting and the attention given to humanity's physical,
mental, aesthetic, and moral needs.)

Even today, with a world ravaged by six thousand years of sin, we can get
hints of what the original beauty must have been like. Traces remain, and
they speak to us of God's wonderful creative power
(Job
12:7-9;
Rom.
1:19, 20). It's hard to imagine what Eden must have looked like and
what a paradise it must have been.

What's
the closest thing to paradise that you've ever seen?
What made it like paradise? In what ways does it parallel what Eden, or the
earth as a whole, must have been like?

Read
Genesis
2:15. How interesting that Adam, even in this earthly paradise, with
everything he could possibly need, was given the task of working in the garden.
The Hebrew word translated "dress" is a common term meaning to "work" or
to "serve." Thus, even before the Fall, even before sin, humanity wasn't
to sit idle but to work. This alone should get rid of the notion that work
itself is somehow bad.

Though we're a long way from Eden, what practical things could you
do now to make your environment more like Eden for yourself and those around
you? What changes would need to be made?

The woman was to be a "help meet for him" (the Hebrew suggests a "helper
over against him," "a help equal to him," "his counterpart"). The Genesis
record places value on woman as an equal, a counterpart, a partner, or a
complement in whose company man finds his fullest satisfaction and with whom
he shares God's image and likeness.

Read
Genesis
1:27, 28. How do these two verses together show the important role the
woman was to have in life on
earth?

Considering the basic physical makeup of Adam, he couldn't fulfill the command
given in
Genesis
1:28 without a woman, could he? Though the woman was to be his companion,
wife, and co-worker in subduing and having dominion over nature, she was
to be so much more, as well (see
Gen.
2:24).

How was Eve created?Gen.
2:21, 22. What distinguished her creation from that of all other
living
things?

Everything else, including man, came out of the dirt; Eve came out of man.
Though the Bible doesn't explain just what that difference means, it certainly
shows that she wasn't to be treated as an inferior to him. Sadly, in so many
societies, women are treated almost as slaves, afforded little dignity and
few rights, a powerful example of what sin has done to the human race.

Have you, either as a man or woman, acquired from your culture (maybe
even subconsciously) some of the wrong attitudes about women? How could what's
taught in
Genesis
2 help change these attitudes?

In
Genesis
2:23, Adam was so rapt that he expressed his triumphant welcome of his
wife in poetry
(verse
23 is the first poetic couplet in Scripture). The creation of Eve and
her and Adam's subsequent marriage were designed to be a great blessing.
One man, with one woman, were to form the foundation of the home, the basic
unit out of which all human life was to spring and then exist. This model
was how they were, indeed, to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth"
(Gen.
1:28).

What
has sin done to this ideal? What common things occur
now that deviate from it? What have been the results?

What
steps in marriage are outlined in the words of God,
and in what order are these steps to occur?Gen.
2:24.

God's ideal for marriage is expounded in this verse. When the time came to
leave those closest to him, his parents, man's first earthly loyalty was
to be to his wife. She was to occupy the foremost place in his affections.
In God's order the union of bodies between husband and wife is to follow
their commitment in marriage. The biblical order "leave . . . cleave .
. . and they shall be one flesh" tragically and defiantly has been turned
upside down, with tragic results.What
kind of intimate relationship between husband and wife
does Scripture uphold long after the Fall?
1
Cor. 7:2-5,
Eph.
5:21-29,
Heb.
13:4. What principles do you find in these verses that reflect what marriage
was like before the Fall? And, most important, if married, what can you do
to better reveal these principles in your own home?

"The home of our first parents was to be a pattern for other homes as their
children should go forth to occupy the earth. That home, beautified by the
hand of God Himself, was not a gorgeous palace. . . . God laced Adam in a
garden. . . . In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all
timethat true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and
luxury, but in communion with God through His created works. . . . Pride
and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find
substantial and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God has
placed within the reach of all." Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and
Prophets, pp. 49, 50.

"Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that
she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet
as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected
by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was
his second self, showing the close union and the affectionate attachment
that should exist in this relation."Ellen G. White, Patriarchs
and Prophets, p. 46, emphasis
supplied.

Discussion
Questions:

How are we today to understand the words in
Genesis
1:27, 28 about the man and woman subduing and dominating the earth? What
might that have meant then, before sin, and now, after sin? What message
does that have for us today in how we relate to our environment?

How
does your society treat women? What practical things can you do, if necessary,
to help women who are being mistreated? What can and should your local church
be doing that it's not doing now?

Are there some marriages in trouble in your church? What can you
do, as a class, in a very practical manner, to help support those going through
this painful turmoil?

I
N S I D E
Story

One Man's Search for Meaningby LEONID TALMAZAN

I grew up in Russia. My father was an honest, sincere Communist with a strong
sense of right and wrong. But I am sad to say that I did not follow his example.
I spent my time hanging out with my friends who lived in the neighboring
apartment blocks. Their influence was not as positive as my parents' influence.
I refused to apply myself in school, and soon I began to fail. I felt bad
that I was disappointing my father but not enough to leave my friends and
their influence.

When I was drafted into the army, my artistic ability got me a job drawing
for the military. But my poor habits got in the way of advancement, and I
lost the opportunity to better myself I began thinking about the opportunities
I had lost because of my bad habits. I began hating my old way of living
and decided to better myself. I decided to become a Communist.

When my parents saw the changes in me, they were amazed. I refused to waste
time watching TV or visiting friends. Instead, I studied law, obsessed with
changing society's evils. But I became disillusioned when I realized that
catching criminals would not change the defects of the human race. I quit
my studies and joined a circus! I even contemplated suicide.

One night while riding a trolley, I saw a church dome in the distance. Maybe
religion is the answer, I thought. I got off the trolley and walked into
a nearby chapel. As I knelt to pray, peace flooded over me. Suddenly I knew
that God exists. I would devote myself to studying about God. But my dying
father begged me to enroll in a university, and I could not refuse.

At the university the spiritual hunger remained. Then I learned about some
evangelistic meetings being held in the city, and I went. The people there
gave me a Bible-the very book that I had searched for! As I read the Bible
and listened to the lectures, I realized that God does exist, and He loves
me. I knew nothing about the Adventists, who were sponsoring the meetings.
I just knew that these meetings were drawing me close to God.

I saved my pennies so
I would have an offering to take to church. I refused to study on Sabbath.
And God blessed me. I realized that God wanted to be my best Friend, and
I invited Him to live in my heart. I am amazed at God's faithfulness and
friendship to me. I never want to do anything that will disappoint my best
Friend.